From the top 5 watched NFPA videos of 2012, this video shows the power of fire, how quickly it can spread, and that you need to get out of the area to prevent getting caught in a flashover:

Top 5 most watched NFPA videos of 2012 - #4
As we mentioned in our last blog post, we are counting down the top 5 most popular NFPA videos of 2012. In case you missed it, check out the video that came in 5th place now.

The 4th place video of 2012 is "Flashover: the Power of Fire."
Flashover is the point in which everything in your home catches fire -- no one can survive. See how quickly flashover can occur and how it can be prevented. Home fire sprinklers save lives and property from fire. They act before the fire department is even notified. In this video, we show what happens while a house is burning and the local fire department is on its way.

Safety Culture Implications of Normalization of Deviation, sometimes also called a "Normalcy Bias".

The normalcy bias, or normality bias, refers to a mental state people enter when facing a possible problem or disaster.
It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a the
problem or disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often
results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare. The
assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a
fire or explosion, or disaster never has occurred then it never will
occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a
disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties
reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also
tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing
on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.

Editor's note: An edited version of this article is in the print and digital editions of December Wood & Wood Products. Below is the article in its entirety.The occurrences and severity of combustible wood dust related fires have been increasing, resulting in an increase in OSHA inspections. Combustible dust is a serious issue. It has become a top health and safety issue in the woodworking industry. While the first reported combustible dust fire occurred in a 1785 at a flour mill in Italy and over two hundred years later in 2008 a major sugar refinery in the state of Georgia exploded due to combustible dust, in 2012, the woodworking industry saw a major sawmill in British Columbia, Canada, launch a fire ball report…

From the NFPA Today Blog. There will soon be a new NFPA Standard on Combustible Dust, NFPA 652. This article is an excellent primer on combustible dust, and describes the Fundamentals of Combustible Dust, based on four basic concepts in each of the other NFPA combustible dust standards: hazard
identification, hazard assessment, hazard management, and management
systems.

Basically, you have to first know whether your dust is combustible, and many if not most dusts or "fines" created in manufacturing are potentially combustible, and you have to manage the risks, namely fugitive dust and ignition sources.

While the government agency WorkSafeBC had been inspecting sawmills and later plywood, pulp and secondary wood products firms, the newspaper's freedom of information request named names and forced more public disclosure by the agency.

This story is an example of a process that manufactures "fuel", a wood pellet operation, and how critical it is to provide hazard analysis and the right engineering and administrative controls to help prevent fires and explosions. The proper safety systems can help protect processes that produce combustible dust from loss of production, injury, life safety, business continuity, OSHA fines, reputation in the industry and community, as well as the mental and emotional well being of employees.

The video below shows smoke from the storage silo, and the fire chief describes how an ember was allegedly created in a pelletizer, and was conveyed to the pellet cooler, where fire traveled from the cooler to the dust collector, and silo. This is a common fire and explosion scenario in the pellet manufacturing process. From Woodworking network. Wood Pellet Maker Settles OSHA ComDust Complaint

VANCOUVER - Babine Forest Products and Lakeland Mills could each face fines of up to $652,000 if found guilty of violating the Workers Compensation Act. Combustible dust explosions racked the two British Columbia sawmills earlier this year, killing four and injuring 52 others.

Although unlikely, up to six months jail time is also possible, news sources report.

Late last week, the Canadian provincial WorkSafeBC agency referred to national government legal agencies its investigation work in the Jan. 19 Babine Forest Products in Burns Lake and April 23 Lakeland Mills in Prince George. In each case, combustible dust and dust accumulation were found to be contributing factor…